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Microsoft files act as core files for most of the enterprises. Since its inception,
MS Office files have been an integral part of every enterprise. The Office files are used from preparing
presentations to monthly reports to annual financial documents.

The use of MS Office files universally has made it the most used document shared across multiple touchpoints.
The advantage of working with Office files is the ease to accessibility & editing.

Preparation of any file in MS office requires written as well as visual content. The size of a file depends on the
quantity & quality of image or audio-video files. Majority of the times, images used in Office files are large,
resulting in huge file sizes. As a file grows in size, it becomes heavier & more difficult to edit quickly.

Another issue with large file sizes is the transmission or transferring of files over mail. Sometimes a PowerPoint
Presentation files exceeds 40-50 MB in size, which makes it difficult to share over an email.

The solution is compression of MS Office files. The main concern with compression has always been quality & security
of the files. With adStringO’s latest product ShrinkOffice, enterprises can compress MS Office files up to 90% with
lossless visual quality. The file quality is maintained throughout the process.

The compression of file does not affect the format of the file in any way whatsoever. The entire process is secure &
protected by ShrinkOffice encryption.

The file compression is processed at enterprise’s site before transferring. The process is very easy. The final
MS Office file, up on completion, is processed with ShrinkOffice tool. That’s it! And you get the compressed Office
files with same quality & format. Preserving the original file quality throughout the compression is the objective
of the tool.

Enterprises can save up to 90% cost on storage as well as bandwidth. In a growing digital era, ShrinkOffice can help
Banking & Financial firms solve the issue of large files by leveraging the compression tool to provide cutting-edge
solution to create leaner & smaller MS Office files.

It’s Time To ‘Kill’ TIFF File

There has been a long debate over which is the best file to use at enterprise level for document storage in soft copy formats, a tiff or the alternative like pdf or jpeg (image file formats). Certainly, there are advantages as well as drawbacks for both file format. But recent developments have helped the alternative of tiff to excel over it.

It is time that Banking, Finance & Services industries (BFSI) consider an alternative for a better file management. TIFF is an outdated file format and lately alternatives to TIFF have arrived. In order to save cost on storage & bandwidth, a smart decision would be to choose the alternatives, which are better, over TIFF.

Let us look at four reasons why TIFF should be avoided at enterprise levels:

• Storage & Quality - A TIFF file format consumes a lot of space. Compared to its alternatives TIFF consumes up to 50-90% of storage space. This can rectified by switching to alternative file formats with maintaining the quality of the file.

• Black & White or Colour -
In the current digital world if you are still stuck to black & white file documentation you are certainly left behind. Switch to colour documents that can be lesser than the file size of a black & white document. Colour document can help maintain a more accurate profile, when it comes to photographs & scan documents.

• Update -
Would you believe if we told you that TIFF file received its last major update in the year 1996? Yes, that is a fact. It is time to switch to the alternative of TIFF. Yes, TIFF has been receiving minor updates but the alternative file formats are capable enough to replace TIFF. Files like PDF or PNG receive updates on a regular basis.

• Alternative -
The popular alternative to TIFF file format are PDF & image file formats. PDF or image files (jpeg, png, etc.) compressed with adStringO Compression tool are up to 90% less in size with lossless visual quality.

adStringO Software excels in providing storage solutions at enterprise level. TIFF alternatives like PDF or PNG can be compressed up to 90% with lossless visual quality using the compression tool. Many leading BFSI are saving costs on storage & network bandwidth up to 90% with the implementation of adStringO compression tool.

It is time to say goodbye to TIFF file format and switch to much recent and updated file formats like PDF or PNG.

Towards a Digitalized India

It is a fact that digitalization in India is on a rise. There is a surge in internet usage over past 2012 in India. A robust reason for the same is the accessibility of smartphones to the vast population. There is no denying that smartphones have penetrated our lives and have created a dependency.

From banking to insurance, the penetration of Internet services has increased about 15% in rural areas and has risen to 30% in urban areas. Mobile has become the leading source of internet access in India. A research study shows that by 2020 the users in rural India will increase to 315 million, making rural India a strong bet for BFSI to provide their digital services there.

The government of India, in the year 2016-17, have started initiatives such as ‘DigiGaon’ and National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) that will help rural internet users to get acquainted with the literacy of internet, leading to increase in use of various types of digital services. This creates an opportunity for the BFSI to reach the potential customers in the rural areas.

Banks can opt for an automated process of customer onboarding. There is no need of physical branch services anymore as the field employees can help customers with all the banking services with the use of a smartphone. Still, one of the main concerns is the network connectivity.

In rural areas, the bandwidth connectivity varies from 2G to 3G. Providing services on 2G connectivity can be a challenge. A strong reason being, uploading large size mobile captured or scanned customer files. There is a solution for this.

Instead of uploading the captured or scanned documents in the raw format, why not compress the documents before uploading. This will help in fast uploading of files, but then again compression of a file can cause visual quality loss. So it becomes a challenge to upload compressed files in the same quality. This can be rectified.

adStringO software is helping Banking Finance Service Industries (BFSI) go branchless & service in up to 6 lac rural areas without having a physical branch. Everything, even onboarding a customer will be easily possible with adStringO’s service. Automation of customer onboarding from anywhere, even at low network connectivity like 2G, is achievable with adStringO software.

Our motive is to eliminate the paperwork & transform it into a completely digitised mobile based onboarding. In the case of customer buying an insurance, the smartphone can be used to make a video, in the size of a PDF file, of the customer’s declaration as a firm proof, along with the scanned or mobile captured soft copy.

The dependency on smartphones is increasing at a high rate and to provide a better service to the customers BFSI firms need to act quickly and smartly. Provide your customers with an automated end-to-end, hassle-free service for a better and satisfied customer relationship.

4 Reasons Why Leading BFSI Firms Onboard adStringO

The Whole Wide World is going through a strong force of digital transformation. India, alone, is expected to cross the mark of 730.7 million mobile users mark by the end of 2017, providing a affirmation why BFSI (Banking, Financial Services & Insurance) firms are targeting smartphones.

A research published by Deepti Chafekar, A Day in the Life of Mobile Users in India, on Quettra research website says that, an average Indian spends 3 hours per day using smartphone to carryout various tasks lie communicating, shopping, surfing, gaming, finance managing, banking, etc. This is an indication why leading BFSIs are leaving the manual method & switching to digitization of the services.

Digitization of services is creating storage & bandwidth solutions to surface. adStringO is world’s fastest endpoint compression providing BFSIs all solutions for a better storage & bandwidth saving that sums up to 90% cost saving annually. Below are four points that make adStringO Software a must service for leading BFSIs.

1. Lossless compression of image, pdf, audio or video file

When digitization of customer documents is done, it is saved in one of the file formats like jpeg, pdf, tiff, etc. Similar is for any sort of audio & video file, which are saved in wav, mp3 or mp4 formats. adStringO Software is capable of compressing all formats of file up to 90%* with no loss in visual quality.

2. 90% savings on bandwidth & storage

When your file gets compressed up to 90%, automatically your storage for the file is reduced by the same ratio and when the file is transferred over a network, the bandwidth too is saved up to 90%. For example a 1 gb file compressed up to 100-200 mb will help save up to 900 mb space & will be lot easier to transfer over network than a 1gb file.

3. 90% annual cost saving

With adStringO endpoint compression files are compressed up to 90%, thus, resulting in saving of storage space & bandwidth used up to 90% too. Larsen & Toubro Insurance implemented adStringO compression & was able to achieve the desired results. 90% saving on storage & bandwidth on each file transaction. So, a 90% cost saving annually!

4. Works on 2G connectivity

As the file compressed is up to 90%, say 1 gb to 100 mb, it becomes easy to transmit big files on low networks, such as 2G. This has led BFSIs to easily reach & operate in rural areas, without having any physical branch with just field/sales employee with mobile device on location.

So, if you are looking for transforming your business digitally & want to reach the maximum potential customer to provide services on their smartphones then on board our solutions that are preferred by leading BFSIs in India.

World’s First Corporate Digital Superhero – Shrinkman

For long there was a need for advancement in the compression technology to help Banking, Financial Services & Insurance enterprises compress documents to a better ratio with maintaining the visual quality. The need was fulfilled by adStringO’s superhero Shrinkman – World’s first Corporate Digital Superhero.

Businesses in India are dependent on offline/traditional methods of operation, which is a time consuming process. Even on boarding a customer in urban areas takes days to weeks. There was a need to shorten the time consumed while providing services to the customers. This made the whole process a costly affair, as the time consumed is more. What if, there was a technology that would, at the same time, reduce the time & cost up to 90%.

Shrinkman, adStringO’s superhero, helps compress files & save 90% on storage. This helps companies save 90% on bandwidth on every single transaction. Shrinkman has eliminated the paperwork between office branches & also between the customer – field employee while on time of on boarding.

7 Steps to Digital Account Opening

The traditional method of an account opening is a slow process in this fast moving technology space. The whole process of opening a customer account takes about 3 days-1 week on average. Processing the form manually causes this delay, passing the file from one desk to the other just adds on the time.

The process of traditional account opening requires the customer to visit the branch, along with the documents and stand in queue, sometimes for a longer period of time. One of the drawbacks, besides long time, is the rejection of the form after a week due to improper document or sometimes due to no matching signatures. Such drawback adds to the mental trouble of the customer.

adStringO Software came up with a solution – 7 Steps to Digital Account Opening. As the name suggests, the process involves 7 easy steps to an account opening within minutes, yes minutes! Let us look at the 7 Steps to Digital Account Opening, step by step, in brief.

The 7 Steps to Digital Account Opening –

•Step 1: Scan/Metatag/Mobile capture

This is the first process and it requires the customer documents to be captured using mobile phone camera. The agent can scan & upload the document from on location or branch.

•Step 2: Quality Check of Digital Scan Application

In Quality Check 1 the uploaded document is checked for errors. If any error found;
poor visible quality of the document,
false details,
improper scanning, etc.
In such case the document is sent back to the branch for re-verification.

•Step 3: Data Entry

The customer document (application form) details are filled.

•Step 4: Final Quality Check

Quality Check 2 involves a thorough checking of the filled form and the customer documents again. If any errors found, the application form is sent back to the branch for re-verification.

•Step 5: Discrepancy standing/Audit

Discrepancy standing order is made available for the customer.

•Step 6: Account Creation/Mail

Account of the customer is created. Customer is notified about this by a mail or message or both to the registered email id or mobile number.

•Step 7: Card & Account Hard Copy dispatch

Card and Account hard copy & other documents are dispatched to the customer’s address as the final step.

This would certainly change the account opening for all the BFSI industries. If you are opening an insurance account, a saving or a salaried, you will be able to complete the entire process in minutes. Imagine applying for an account opening with any bank and being able to operate on the account same day, revolutionizing, isn’t it? Help customers get the best solution to open an account.

Another benefit that going digital provides is the possibility to operate from anywhere, anytime. BFSI industries can operate in over 6 lac rural areas without having a branch, reaching a huge potential customer base. Go branchless, go digital! On board the solution of 7 step Digital Account Opening to deliver an enhanced experience to your customers.

See Your Customer (SYC)

Keeping a record of your customer in large volumes of files is not an easy task, especially if you are into a continuous cycle of communication with your customers and have to produce the documents every now and then.

Consider the functioning of a bank; it takes about a week sometimes, to get the account operational after clearing in all the application and documentation process. Suppose the bank opts for a DMS (Data management System), it may be easy to register and maintain the data of a client/customer. When it comes to reproducing the documents, it may sometimes result in a cumbersome process as there could be a huge possibility of a similar name of customers in any bank.

The simplest way of recognition of a customer is the photo on the application form. But many-a-times this can pose as hindrance too. How?

-The image could be of a few years back and the appearance of the customer might have change, which may be a problem in quick recognition from the photo.
-The photograph could be misplaced, while storing and filing.
-The photograph could’ve been damaged (ink spill on the photo accidently, etc.)

Hence, there is the need of an alternative, which would ensure no more mismanagement of documents. To eradicate all these problems you can use SYC – See Your Customer.

See Your Customer is a video service that helps your firm keep a video of the customer registering the details on the video. This recorded file is easy to manage and can be easily identified by the employees, resulting in a much faster process of recalling a customer’s detail. SYC service will help curb the fraudulent paperwork from the customer’s side if any.

Functions of AdStringO’s SYC –

A very simple principle functions behind the See You Customer video process, the same principle that is behind AdStringO’s audio and image end-point compression. What happens is, AdStringO helps in compression of the video to 1/20th the source file size thus providing a lot of excess space to store. Consider this situation – If your customer’s video ends up being a 10MB video after recording a 1-minute video then the same video would be compressed to 1-2MB with no loss in quality, yes you read that right.

This is the unique feature of AdStringO’s endpoint compression technique. AdStringO uses a strong algorithm that does not let you lose any quality on the compression. This can help you build a much efficient, fraud-proof customer database, which is better and makes it easy to identify your customers.

Benefits of the SYC –

Bank/loan details via video

You can keep a video portfolio of your customers, which would be an easy method to recognise the customer.­­­­

Establish Customer Contractibility

SYC helps you record the declaration of customer’s personal details like name, address and accepting to the terms and conditions to the agreement.

Avoid Fraudulent & Misselling

The software technology will help the bank employees record the accountant’s personal details on video. This would lead to more transparency between employees and customers. The details of the customer can be recorded in video format of the 1 minute in endpoint compressed format, thus easy to manage.

Employee Assessment (in/out)

Interview and assessments of the employees could be kept as a record for better management. This could be useful for a senior to review at any given point in time.

Survey/Customer’s feedback

When you ask the customer’s response via a mail/text or a phone call you are not sure, whether the same person is on the other side responding, resulting in a dubious customer response. With SYC, there can be no shortcomings, the SYC service will allow you to video record customer responses for better analysis and report.

Self-service

The video technology can be integrated into any system preferable for better services.

Unbelievable Compression

Advance Data Management In The Digital Age

A firm providing financial services has to deal with their customers with respect to time. The quick the firm is able to provide services, the customer will be satisfied & happier. In an era where most of the process has gone digital, resulting everything to move faster, it would be unwise to follow the manual method of document collection, which consumes a lot of time.

Dealing with paperwork becomes a cumbersome process when it comes to collecting data manually from the customers and submitting it to the head quarters. The process is clumsy & consumes time, especially the documents reaching from the customer’s place to the Headquarters can span over a 2-3 day period. In a digitally revolutionizing world why stick to the ‘old’ methods of documentation that makes you slow and your customer unhappy about the delay?

The Present Situation

The back office employee(s) at firms into data/document process were using manual method to collect data for the loan, etc. purposes of the customer, as it a complete branch run process. This process of collecting & depositing the data to getting the approval of loan, stretched to an exhaustive 15 days to 40 days period.

The current situation wasn’t helping neither the firms not the customers. Even to provide benefits to a few customers situated far away, the firms had to establish a fully functioning branch. This was costing a lot to the firms and also the maintenance cost scaled up. This was not helping the firms financially.

Such problem poses a challenge to overcome by any finance team of a firm. This problem made the firms to look for an alternative solution to make the process of customer documentation much faster, efficient and effective, which would lead to a better documentation process, making the customer satisfactory.

The Solution

“Speed and accuracy a tool for the financial business sectors to grow their reach”

AdStringO software came up with the unique solution, to digitize the complete process. The idea proposed by adStringO was approved for trial by firms; it was very simple, digitizing the complete process, from pick-up to clearance and passing of the loan.

After getting the approval adStringO began its process by helping the data management team by digitizing the document collection process from the customers place, after a successful pilot study.

The on field employee now just needed to scan the documents of the customer, which directly gets stored in the database at the Head Quarters. This process helped resolve the manual data management process, cutting the need of a branch to be set-up at every location. The cumbersome 40* day process was reduced to a very short time period. The issuance of policy now took just 4 hours, saving a lot of time and resources.

The Result

After introducing adStringO, the policy issuance process that took 2 weeks to 1 month was reduced to 4 hours, saving a lot of time of the firms. Adstringo is the first mobile based application that helps process the data digitally, resulting in a fast and better data management.

“Revolutionizing the paperwork, saving time and resources simultaneously”

How AdStringO works?

With adstringo the sales/field employee only has to carry a mobile device to the customer’s place. The documents produced by the customer are scanned on the spot using the mobile device installed with Adstringo software, which compresses the source file size to its 1/20* of size, resulting in a much faster data transfer. The data is directly uploaded to the central Head Quarters server where it is processed in less time. This whole process takes only than 4 hours.

The Benefits

Adstringo helped the data management teams to reduce time for policy issuance & clearance time from 14-30 days to 4 hours. The complete loan process that used to take 40 days now takes much shorter period of time to clear, satisfying the customer needs much faster.

This added to a huge cost saving to the data process management of the firms. Larsen & Toubro Finance team is using the service and in an estimated period of five years will be able to save 67.10 million, making huge profits. The cost saving per policy issuance was reduced to 50% of the original cost.

adStringO helped the teams to bring all the data process on a mobile device platform helping them to close down many branches, resulting in saving huge maintenance costs.